FROM ESCAP HRD NEWSLETTER NO.9

The Third Consultative Meeting Among Executive Heads of Subregional Organizations and ESCAP was held in Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran, in May. It was hosted by the Economic Cooperation Organization. Its objective was to identify possible areas of cooperation among the subregional organizations (SROs), and with ESCAP. The subregional organizations present at the meeting were the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO), the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), and the Forum Secretariat.

Many countries in the ESCAP region have put human resources development on the top of their national development agenda. HRD is an essential policy imperative for the governments of the region. Likewise, regional and subregional organizations have followed suit and have allocated a substantial share of their resources to HRD. ASEAN's concern in human resources development has been to address the imbalances in the labour market of its member countries, and to respond to the continuous industrial and technological developments in the world. ASEAN's HRD work has focused on a wide range of training programmes in diverse fields.

For ECO, one of its goals has been to build a reservoir of highly skilled, scientific and technical manpower and strengthen the scientific and research institutions in its member states. ECO members include the six Central Asian Republics (CARs), Pakistan, the Islamic Republic of Iran, and Turkey.

The HRD concerns for SAARC have been primarily focused on poverty alleviation through programmes for youth, children, disabled persons, and women.

The Pacific Forum, finally, administers a variety of technical training programmes and fellowship schemes as part of its efforts to support cooperation in HRD among its members.

Throughout its existence ESCAP's multidisciplinary staff have been providing technical assistance and training activities in many different areas of interest to the SROs. At the meeting, an extensive list of ongoing activities was reviewed. Most of those activities were carried out primarily at the inter-country level by ESCAP.

The meeting urged ESCAP to consider provide more HRD services at the subregional level. The next meeting of the executive heads of the subregional organizations and ESCAP will be held in Kathmandu in 1998, to be hosted by SAARC.

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ESCAP HRD NEWSLETTER NO. 9